The parts are not greater than the whole. Or at least they don’t offset it.
That’s the bottom line on The Humans, the newest offering from Repertory Theatre of St. Louis’ main stage. I’m clearly in the minority here; the play won multiple Tonys and other awards in 2016. It’s about a family as they gather for Thanksgiving, certainly a classic setup. Author Stephen Karam has loads to work with, certainly, but his task is to avoid seeming like a television sitcom. And he does, eventually. But in the meantime….
The setting is a basement duplex in New York City’s Chinatown a decade or so ago. Brigid (Lauren Marcus) and her boyfriend Richard (Fajer Kaisi) just moved in together, and they’re hosting her family for Thanksgiving dinner. Her dad (Brian Dykstra), mom (Carol Schultz), and grandmother, known as “Momo” (Darrie Lawrence), who has dementia, have driven in from Pennsylvania, and her sister Aimee (Kathleen Wise), a Philadelphia attorney, has joined them. Dad seems a tad stressed, something he denies, but Mom reports he’s having nightmares.
Momo lives with them. She’s clearly sliding into the late stages of her disease and is mostly in a wheelchair. They’ve had problems with her becoming very agitated. Mom keeps hinting about Brigid and Richard getting married. Brigid is a struggling musician and Richard, at age 38 and older than she, is in graduate school. Aimee – well, Aimee’s list is longer but she seems pretty functional.
It’s certainly competently acted, with Dykstra’s father and Marcus’ Brigid being notable, he for his seeming strength and she for showing a character that isn’t as strong as she seems. Lawrence, well-known to Rep audiences, handles the dementia with accuracy in a role that’s not as easy as it might seem. Gianni Downs’ set is remarkable, four rooms on two levels, definitely a character unto itself in the story. Rob Denton, the lighting designer, and Rusty Wandall, the sound designer, also play key roles in the experience of the play.
Karam respects each of his characters and weaves them together nicely as the heat of the gathering rises. Director Steve Wolf keeps the rhythm going well, although there were times when there was so much overlapping dialogue it was hard for the audience to track. I assume that was a deliberate authorial choice, but almost as frustrating for the audience as it is for the characters.
But these are mostly people who are vaguely interesting, leaving an audience to sit back with an almost clinical interest in what happens next. Then, very near the end of the ninety-minute no-intermission play, we find ourselves in something out of Sartre or Kafka. It may refer to something the boyfriend says to the father, but it’s not a slide into something else, it’s more like slipping on an unexpected patch of ice on some stairs.
The Humans
through March 4, 2018
Repertory Theatre St. Louis
Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts
130 Edgar Rd., Webster Groves
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